Diversidade e possíveis aplicações quimiotaxonômicas dos polissacarídeos extracelulares de microalgas verdes cocoides
Resumen
The extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) produced by microalgae have mainly been studied
because of their relevance to aquatic environments (Myklestad 1995).
As the monomer composition of the EPS is presented as heteropolymers often composed
of a diversity of monomers and that the diversity of EPS between algae is huge and taxonomically
close organisms each other have compounds slightly different, made us believe in their use for
chemotaxonomy of microalgae.
The use of EPS for this purpose, was due to the ease of extracting them from cultures, their
facility to be analyzed, together with their specificity and their constitution by only one or two
fractions.
This study goal was to verify the possibility of using EPS as features for a possible
chemotaxonomic approach. Thus the characterization of algae polysaccharides was essential for a
better understanding of the differences and similarities found in the EPS.
Thus, throughout the chapters we will look at the characterization of specific groups which
had most representatives for the selected genres. These genera were: 1) Ankistrodesmus; 2)
complex Selenastrum / Messastrum / Curvastrum; 3) Monoraphidium; and 4) Kirchneriella.
The observation of monomers / specific bond within the genera, due to the characterization
of EPS, showed us that there are possible differentiation between strains / species and at the genus
level.